Vehicle Day: Semis-on-Steroids, Rocking Around the New Armored HUMVEE and More

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait, June 20 — After an uneasy night, broken by the continual beeping of forklifts moving pallets of water and PX (post exchange) supplies around, I start off at the equipment draw area of the 401st Army Field Support for Day Two of my embed headed for Iraq: the mechanic's fantasy tour.

In open bays easily the size of a football field, everything's big, clanging and noisy: Bradley fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and Abrams A1M1 tanks lined up in rows, mechanics scurrying over them like monkeys. To transport all this, 42-wheeled Heavy Equipment Transport System (HETS) trailers are everywhere—51-ft. long and 12-ft. wide each with a 70-ton payload, but so smart and agile they can slink around corners like one of those mini yellow school buses. From the top of one HETS (pictured above), I watch as Mr. William Murray gives me a lesson in the finer points of load leveling, then shows me a neat trick: the tires turning in tandem, with automatically steering axles and load leveling hydraulics.

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Back at the Forward Repair Building, I strap into a plateless vest and too-big helmet, then climb into the modified cab designed by the unit's shop welders a ride in the HUMVEE Egress Assistance Trainer (HEAT), an armored vehicle featured in this month's Popular Mechanics and pictured at right. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Caire, deployed from Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., rides shotgun as the HEAT begins a four-point roll.

My helmeted head hits the cab's ceiling and I hang, upside-down, suspended by what seem now like really flimsy seat belts. The roll to the left isn't so bad, but then operator James Cromer takes us to the right, and without the door to support me, I dangle in midair, holding onto the steering wheel with a vise-like grip. We roll completely over, the dust and sands of Kuwait filling my eyes, nose and throat. We hang there for a few seconds, then roll back upright. Finally, the crowd gathered below to watch swarms over me as I descend from the HUMVEE, proffering cold water, paper towels and lots of good humor.

I wipe some dust and sand off, and head for the transmission rebuild room, where two troops show me the HUMVEE component they're working on. In the machine shop, Tammy Hale, from Red River Army Depot, Texas, polishes a crankshaft. Soon I'd stand in the turret of the new M1117 Armored Security Vehicle and use a toggle that attaches to and swivels around almost any nearby metal. But it's clear that this whole facility is humming with activity because these contractors and troops are racing to keep pace with the combat and support units. —Leslie Sabbagh